Furnace Help

I was smelting 64 iron ore today on smp3. I went to smp8 to do things, and then when I came back to smp3, there was no iron smelted yet. (Yes, I had coal ) Is this normal or a problem? Do you have to be on that server when its smelting?

Short answer: you need to be close to the thing which is 'happening' for it to 'happen'.

Long(er) answer: a Minecraft server divides the regions of the map into "chunks". These are parts which can get loaded and unloaded from the server memory. The latter is required to make sure that the server doesn't overload or runs out of memory. Especially during times when the server gets visited by hundreds of players.

So... As hinted at above: if you leave the area you're in and no one else is around then the 'chunk' (area you're in) is likely to get unloaded after which everything which is happening there will stop happening.